BBC crew attacked by unidentified people in southern Russia

A BBC crew has been attacked by persons as yet unknown in Astrakhan in southern Russia. Their equipment was damaged and the broadcaster has launched a formal complaint to the Russian authorities.

When the group left the
café, where they had stopped for lunch and approached their
vehicle, they “were confronted and attacked by at least three
aggressive individuals,” wrote Steven Rosenberg, the BBC’s
Moscow correspondent.

“Our cameraman was knocked to the ground and beaten,” he
added.

According to Rosenberg, the attackers “grabbed the BBC
camera, smashed it on the road and took it away in their getaway
car.”

Then the group spent more than “four hours at the police
station being questioned by investigators,” he added.

After returning from police authorities, the group found that the
recorded material left in the car had been deleted.

“The hard drive of our main computer and several memory cards
had been wiped clean,” wrote Rosenberg.

The group was investigating reports of alleged Russian servicemen
being killed near the Russian-Ukrainian border.

The southern Russian city of Astrakhan is located nearly 1,000 km
from the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, where hostilities
have been taking place.

The BBC crew is now safe in Moscow.

BBC lodges formal protest with Russian government after one of
its news teams was attacked in southern Russia http://t.co/iW1Aq3eRjm

According to the press office of Astrakhan region’s interior
ministry, the authorities have opened "a criminal case"
after police received a report of an attack on a cameraman who
had been "beaten and robbed by unidentified persons."

In the meantime, the BBC has lodged a formal protest with the
Russian government concerning the incident.